Danny takes the sword of the Fright Knight to improve his haunted house room on Halloween.
8.0
"Great"
After both Danny and Dash are assigned by Lancer to make a haunted house room for Halloween, they make a little side bet. Danny looks up the Fright Night, the spirit of Halloween, and tries to fuse it into his room. When he sees that Dash’s room is going to stomp his, he desperately journeys into the Ghost Zone to steal the sword of the Fright Knight, the Soul Shredder, in order to improve his room. But this awakens the Fright Knight himself, who flies back into the real world to get his sword back.
I didn’t think of this episode as very good, but this was actually a while after I had first seen it. After seeing it again this previous Halloween, I’ve realized this episode, while not the best, was still pretty good.
The opening was somewhat interesting. I didn’t think a minor ghost like that eel would give Danny that much trouble. But its ability to easily absorb Danny’s ray and send another one back at him was troublesome for Danny. But it’s totally irrelevant to the actual episode. I did like the scene where Lancer actually gave Danny a chance to avoid detention, even though I didn’t like his quote about pretending to be fair that much. Oh, and the side bet with eating Dash’s underwear…gross. Like Tucker said, the underwear and the fact that Dash carries it around in his coat, they were both rather crazy.
Danny wasn’t as bad as I first really thought him to be here. The fact that he went to steal the Soul Shredder was somewhat understandable, since he would have to eat the disgusting underwear otherwise. But when the ecto-storm was causing chaos and danger everywhere and Danny refused to take the sword back until Lancer declared him the winner, that was a little too Timmy-ish. And when he said, “Yes!” in response to Lancer being sent to his worst fear…oh, boy. But he really did learn how important it is not to be hasty or reckless. Also, his pathetic attempts to try and make his room scary were funny. But not putting a pumpkin in the room when it’s Halloween? Oy.
Sam was portrayed very well in this episode. It’s always a good thing to see friends who usually don’t play a very major role in fights come out and help, and that’s what Sam did here. She was quick on her feet in finding a way to defeat the Fright Knight, and she also seemed to think Danny wasn’t very smart in taking the sword, and that was IC. Also, I really liked her encouragement of, “Come on, Danny. You can do it!” I thought it was very nice.
There was also a good amount of D/S in this episode. You had to think that their experience with Ember in FtF is still fresh in their minds. While in TotY, it was nice to see the writers move on to something else, they obviously don’t want it to go completely back to normal, but at least keep parts of it there. Danny’s protecting of Sam when the Fright Knight was about to slice her, holding her down when she was about to be sucked into the Ghost Zone, and of course, the hug at the end were all very sweet.
Tucker had minimal involvement in FN. I can understand his wanting to go trick-or-treating, since he’s pretty much the least mature out of the trio, and also since there are kids at my high school who still go trick-or-treating. His “costume” was lame, but very Tucker. And his scene where he thought Danny was the Fright Knight wasn’t very good. Sure, he’s unreliable, but he can’t recognize what isn’t his best friend?
As for the Fright Knight himself, he was quite the evil guy. He was able to open the Fenton Portal from the inside! He was somewhat dramatic, but there was still the very sinister look at him. He also looked like an extremely tough adversary for Danny, and his Soul Shredder is a very tough weapon. The dimensions where Lancer and Tucker were transported to were very funny, and it matched their personalities.
The action scenes, while not the best and quite choppy, still had plenty of energy and a sense of real threat behind them. The scenes in the Ghost Zone were someone intense when Danny was in ghost mode, especially when Danny bled ectoplasm. Hey, it's not blood, so it's not that inappropriate. And Danny did some quick thinking remembering that humans can phase through everything. As for the final battle, Danny actually gets pounded a bit more than the Fright Knight does, and that’s the kind of final fight that works on DP. His remark of, “Strike six! Way to whiff, Mr. October!” was very funny. Also, the music when Danny was slamming the sword into the pumpkin was AWESOME!
The ending started very nice, but then shot downward. Danny’s fessing up to Lancer was good, but it felt a little bit rushed and somewhat unnecessary. And why did Lancer switch the honor of victor from Danny to Dash? I really didn’t like that, nor Danny getting in trouble with his parents that much, though that didn’t bother me as much as the former. And of course, when Danny still has to eat the underwear…ugh. The only ending so far that has made me grimace instead of the usual smile or chuckle.
Something else I found interesting were the references to FtF and PoL. References to episodes from the past are always interesting to see and I feel as if I can relate to whatever the reference is specifically being aimed at.
Overall, this episode was pretty good. While there were things that could have made this around a 9/10, there were other things that held it back and I give it 8/10. Not bad.